We’re losing the battle from the home

Over the years, successive administrations have tried, with little to no success, to control crime.

Crime is often referred to as a monster, as it goes about destroying our country and wrecking lives leaving a trail of blood and tears. Jamaica’s crime situation has got so grave that police officers have had to be assigned to some schools.

The efforts to tame the monster have been numerous; including increasing the number of policemen and soldiers, using overseas experts, calling of states of emergency and zones of special operation (ZOSO), and expanding an all-seeing Jamaicaeye to spot criminal activities.

In our dream to have a crime-free Jamaica we have been willing to try different measures and have achieved the same. How about focusing on the home and parenting?

While it may seem as a soft approach, learned people will tell you that broken homes contribute greatly to the anarchy in our society. The important role that parents play in the lives of children cannot be overemphasised. Parents are the first ones to teach children respect, discipline, good manners, positive attitudes, values, wrong and right.

The problems stem from the fact that many parents are children themselves, many have not been taught the positives by their parents, plus the sore thumb issue of missing fathers.

There has been a lot of focus on our girls and we are reaping the rewards. The boys, however, top the negative chart and are positioned to stay there for a long time. There are more male criminals, more men are murderers, and more men in prison.

We are losing the battle from the home; we need to find a way to assist parents through counselling or otherwise. We need to find a way to help the men find themselves so that the younger generation of males can feature in the positive column. Fighting fire with fire will only leave a burnt Jamaica.